10 Coolest DIY Projects From Maker Faire 2011

Over the weekend, more than 100,000 engineers, programmers, tinkerers, hackers, builders and general-interest do-it-yourselfers descended on the San Mateo Country Event Center, south of San Francisco. They were here for the Maker Faire, a roaming event catering to a growing population of "makers" and their fans, unified by the passion to create things and to teach others to do the same. The Bay Area Maker Faire is just the latest of many, but it represents a homecoming of sorts. Lots of the maker movement's most influential players are based in the region. And for touring makers, this is the main event. Here, 10 of the coolest projects we saw at the Faire.

Kinetic Steam Works

Kinetic Steam Works

Call them history buffs, mechanics or enthusiasts—just don't call them Steampunks. "No, they're over there," Kinetic Steam Works board chair Jen Garber says, gesturing toward a group of tables manned by people in Gilded Age getups, surrounded by brass and silver antiques. "There's a definite aesthetic to what we do, but there's an edge behind the theatrics. Steam is really dangerous."

Kinetic Steam Works is a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring steam-powered machinery, enlisting the skills of young mechanics and history enthusiasts to take stewardship over obsolete mechanical treasures, including decommissioned industrial equipment, metalworking hardware and retired rail engines. Sometimes this means simple restoration. Other times, the group takes creative liberties with its hardware. For example, the group's main attraction at Maker Faire was a player piano driven by a massive, steam-powered industrial line shaft. To the right, through the resulting cloud, spectators could make out the iconic profile of KSW's painstakingly refurbished 1943 Buffalo Springfield steam roller.

MakerBot Thing-O-Matic

MakerBot Thing-O-Matic

MakerBot Industries is a pure example of the maker ethos: Not only has the company created an interesting machine, but its machine's sole purpose is to create things. MakerBot's Thing-o-Matic is the company's most affordable 3D printer, selling for $999. Provided with the right instructions, it can print just about any 3D shape into plastic.

It can be hard to explain why exactly someone might want a 3D printer, so the crew put together a demo: a facial scanning system housed inside a 7-foot-tall dome built by maker Michael Felix, the joints of which were created with a 3D printer. Inside, fellow maker Kyle MacDonald uses the infrared camera bar from a Microsoft Kinect, along with software he wrote himself, to capture 3D models of attendees' faces, which are then printed into plastic statues. The whole process, from flesh to plastic, takes only 45 minutes.